I am an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Kansas and am an affiliated faculty in the Kansas African Studies Center. My research explores syntax, semantics, and morphology, and their interfaces. I use fieldwork on understudied languages, particularly Bantu languages of East Africa, to inform our theoretical model.
My dissertation, Perspectives on Syntactic Dependencies (UCLA 2018), explores how intensional semantics constrains antecedent-gap chains. The broad focus is on defective intervention, which I investigate narrowly through the lens of the tough-construction. You can download the full text here: Full Dissertation. Below is a brief summary of the chapters, for ease of reference.
Chapter 1: A snapshot of the states-of-the-art of both defective intervention and the tough-construction.
Chapter 2: A new generalization: only attitude holders are defective interveners. Why?
Chapter 3: An syntactico-semantic account of the tough-construction.
Chapter 4: Future directions and unsolved problems.
[photo credit: Ben Lavussa]
My dissertation, Perspectives on Syntactic Dependencies (UCLA 2018), explores how intensional semantics constrains antecedent-gap chains. The broad focus is on defective intervention, which I investigate narrowly through the lens of the tough-construction. You can download the full text here: Full Dissertation. Below is a brief summary of the chapters, for ease of reference.
Chapter 1: A snapshot of the states-of-the-art of both defective intervention and the tough-construction.
Chapter 2: A new generalization: only attitude holders are defective interveners. Why?
Chapter 3: An syntactico-semantic account of the tough-construction.
Chapter 4: Future directions and unsolved problems.
[photo credit: Ben Lavussa]
PAPERS
In prep "Say-Complementizers in Naming Contexts" (with Travis Major)
In prep "Tough-Nominalizations Reconsidered"
Under review "Perspectival Domains in Nouns and Clauses"
In revision "The Meaning of the Tough-Construction" (Natural Language Semantics) (draft)
In revision "Taking Time with the Tough-Construction" (Journal of Linguistics) (draft)
In press "Gradability across Grammatical Domains" (Linguistic Variation) (with Margit Bowler)
In press "The Expression of Modality in Logoori" (with Margit Bowler) (Journal of African Languages and Linguistics)
In press "Null Expletives and Embedded Clauses" (Syntax) (draft)
2020 "Voice Reversals and Syntactic Structure: Evidence from Hittite" Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1) (with Anthony Yates)
2016 (with Margit Bowler) “The Anticausative Alternation in Luragooli", Diversity in African Languages: Selected Papers from the 46th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Doris Payne, Sara Pacchiarotti, Mokaya Bosire (eds). Contemporary African Linguistics, vol 2, Language Science Press
The appendix to this paper can be found here.
In prep "Say-Complementizers in Naming Contexts" (with Travis Major)
In prep "Tough-Nominalizations Reconsidered"
Under review "Perspectival Domains in Nouns and Clauses"
In revision "The Meaning of the Tough-Construction" (Natural Language Semantics) (draft)
In revision "Taking Time with the Tough-Construction" (Journal of Linguistics) (draft)
In press "Gradability across Grammatical Domains" (Linguistic Variation) (with Margit Bowler)
In press "The Expression of Modality in Logoori" (with Margit Bowler) (Journal of African Languages and Linguistics)
In press "Null Expletives and Embedded Clauses" (Syntax) (draft)
2020 "Voice Reversals and Syntactic Structure: Evidence from Hittite" Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1) (with Anthony Yates)
2016 (with Margit Bowler) “The Anticausative Alternation in Luragooli", Diversity in African Languages: Selected Papers from the 46th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Doris Payne, Sara Pacchiarotti, Mokaya Bosire (eds). Contemporary African Linguistics, vol 2, Language Science Press
The appendix to this paper can be found here.
PROCEEDINGS
To appear Epistemic Parallels between Nouns and Clauses in Proceedings of WCCFL 37/38.
To appear (with Margit Bowler) Cross-categorial gradability in Logoori. In Joseph Rhyne, Kaelyn Lamp, Nicole Dreier, and Chloe Kwan (eds) Proceedings of SALT 30.
2019 "Iterative-Reciprocal Polysemy in Logoori" Proceedings of TripleA 5, M. Ryan Bochnak, Miriam Butt, Erlinde Meertens, Mark-Mathias Zymla, eds. Universität Tübingen
2019 "The Natural Class of Tough-Predicates, and Non-finite Clauses" Proceedings of WCCFL 36, Richard Stockwell, Maura O'Leary, Zhongshi Xu, Z.L. Zhou, eds. Cascadilla
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in three Luhya languages," Proceedings of Triple A4, Vera Hohaus and Wanda Rothe, eds.
2017 (with Margit Bowler) “Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli,” Proceedings of SALT 26, Austin, TX.
2016 “Non-causative causatives in K’iche’.” Proceedings of the Workshop on the Structure and Constituency in the Lnaguages of the Americas 20. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics 43. Emily Sadlier-Brown, Erin Gruntly and Natalie Weber (eds.)
2016 "Decomposing Morphological Number in Local Contexts" Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference of Formal Linguistics. Kyeong-min Kim, Pocholo Umbal, Trevor Block, Queenie Chan, Tanie Cheng, Kelli Finney, Mara Katz, Sophie Nickel-Thompson, and Lisa Shorten, eds. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project
2015 "Some causative alternations in K'iche' and a unified syntactic derivation", Proceedings of BLS 41
2012, (with Gene Buckley) "Syntax and Prosody in Kashaya Phrasal Accent,"University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 4.
To appear Epistemic Parallels between Nouns and Clauses in Proceedings of WCCFL 37/38.
To appear (with Margit Bowler) Cross-categorial gradability in Logoori. In Joseph Rhyne, Kaelyn Lamp, Nicole Dreier, and Chloe Kwan (eds) Proceedings of SALT 30.
2019 "Iterative-Reciprocal Polysemy in Logoori" Proceedings of TripleA 5, M. Ryan Bochnak, Miriam Butt, Erlinde Meertens, Mark-Mathias Zymla, eds. Universität Tübingen
2019 "The Natural Class of Tough-Predicates, and Non-finite Clauses" Proceedings of WCCFL 36, Richard Stockwell, Maura O'Leary, Zhongshi Xu, Z.L. Zhou, eds. Cascadilla
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in three Luhya languages," Proceedings of Triple A4, Vera Hohaus and Wanda Rothe, eds.
2017 (with Margit Bowler) “Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli,” Proceedings of SALT 26, Austin, TX.
2016 “Non-causative causatives in K’iche’.” Proceedings of the Workshop on the Structure and Constituency in the Lnaguages of the Americas 20. University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics 43. Emily Sadlier-Brown, Erin Gruntly and Natalie Weber (eds.)
2016 "Decomposing Morphological Number in Local Contexts" Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference of Formal Linguistics. Kyeong-min Kim, Pocholo Umbal, Trevor Block, Queenie Chan, Tanie Cheng, Kelli Finney, Mara Katz, Sophie Nickel-Thompson, and Lisa Shorten, eds. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project
2015 "Some causative alternations in K'iche' and a unified syntactic derivation", Proceedings of BLS 41
2012, (with Gene Buckley) "Syntax and Prosody in Kashaya Phrasal Accent,"University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics: Vol. 18: Iss. 1, Article 4.
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS
2019 "Attitudinal Intervention"
2019 "Reciprocal Polysemy and Compositionality" (draft)
2018 "Decomposing Number Features" (draft)
2019 "Attitudinal Intervention"
2019 "Reciprocal Polysemy and Compositionality" (draft)
2018 "Decomposing Number Features" (draft)
TALKS/POSTERS
to appear [postponed from 2020] "On the Distribution of Expletive Markers in Nyala East" at Bantu8, Essex
2020 (with Margit Bowler) "Polysemy and Degree Scales in Logoori" at SALT 30
2020 (with Margit Bowler) "Epistemic Marking on Nouns in Nyala East" at TripleA 7, Tübingen
2020 "Epistemic parallels between nouns and clauses" at WCCFL 38, UBC
2019 (with Margit Bowler) "Polysemy and degree scales in Logoori" at TripleA 6, at MIT (handout)
2019 (with Margit Bowler) "A polysemous gradable modifier in Logoori" at ACAL 50, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (handout)
2019 "Reflexivity and Reciprocity in Competition in Logoori'' at GLOW 42, Oslo. (poster) and (handout)
2018 "The natural class of tough-predicates, and non-finite clauses" at WCCFL 36, UCLA.
2018 "Reciprocal and Plural Events in Logoori" at ACAL 49, UMich
2018 "The syntax, semantics, and morphology of plural and reciprocal events in Logoori," University of Kansas (invited talk). (4-up version)
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in Three Luhya Languages" AAA 4, University of Gothenberg, July 11
2017 (with Margit Bowler, Michael Diercks, Maurice Sifuna, and Kelvin Alulu) "A typological study of modality in Luhya languages." ACAL 48. Bloomington, IN. (Appendix)
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in Three Luhya Languages." ACAL 48. Bloomington, IN.
2017 (with Jesse Harris and Marju Kaps) "Sloppy on the road to strict? Stereotypical gender and the interpretation of VP Ellipsis." at CUNY 30, Boston, MA.
2017 (with Margit Bowler, Michael Diercks, and Maurice Sifuna) “Modality in Luyia: A typological study” (poster) Linguistic Society of America. Austin, Texas. (handout and poster)
2016 (with Margit Bowler) "Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli", SALT 26, Austin Texas
2016 "Intervention in Tough-Movement: A semantic analysis". GLOW 39: Workshop on Perspectivization, Göttingen, Germany
2016 (with Margit Bowler) "Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli", ACAL 46, Berkeley, CA
2016 "Taking Time in Logooli", ACAL 46, Berkeley, CA
2016 "Taking Time with Tough-Movement", LSA, Washington D.C.
2015 (with Margit Bowler), "Existential Quantification in Logoori: distribution and semantics of ku", Kyoto, Japan, August 21-24
2015 "Decomposing Morphological Number in Local Contexts", WCCFL 33, Simon Fraser University, March 27
2015 (with Margit Bowler) "Transitivity Alternations in Logoori", ACAL 46, University of Oregon, March 26
2015 "Some Causative Alternations in K'iche'" Berkeley Linguistics Society 41, Berkeley, CA, February 8
2015 "Non-Causative Causatives in K'iche'", WSCLA 20, University of Arizona, January 23
2015 "Taking Time with TAKE and TIME", UCLA's Syn/Sem, January 16
2014 Getting Rid of Number Features (poster), MorphologyFest, Indiana University, June 16-20
2014, External Applicatives and Raising-to-Object/ECM 38th Penn Linguistics Colloquium, March 28-30, 2014
2011, (with Gene Buckley) Syntax and Prosody in Kashaya Phrasal Accent 35th Penn Linguistics Colloquium, March 18-20, 2011
to appear [postponed from 2020] "On the Distribution of Expletive Markers in Nyala East" at Bantu8, Essex
2020 (with Margit Bowler) "Polysemy and Degree Scales in Logoori" at SALT 30
2020 (with Margit Bowler) "Epistemic Marking on Nouns in Nyala East" at TripleA 7, Tübingen
2020 "Epistemic parallels between nouns and clauses" at WCCFL 38, UBC
2019 (with Margit Bowler) "Polysemy and degree scales in Logoori" at TripleA 6, at MIT (handout)
2019 (with Margit Bowler) "A polysemous gradable modifier in Logoori" at ACAL 50, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (handout)
2019 "Reflexivity and Reciprocity in Competition in Logoori'' at GLOW 42, Oslo. (poster) and (handout)
2018 "The natural class of tough-predicates, and non-finite clauses" at WCCFL 36, UCLA.
2018 "Reciprocal and Plural Events in Logoori" at ACAL 49, UMich
2018 "The syntax, semantics, and morphology of plural and reciprocal events in Logoori," University of Kansas (invited talk). (4-up version)
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in Three Luhya Languages" AAA 4, University of Gothenberg, July 11
2017 (with Margit Bowler, Michael Diercks, Maurice Sifuna, and Kelvin Alulu) "A typological study of modality in Luhya languages." ACAL 48. Bloomington, IN. (Appendix)
2017 (with Margit Bowler) "Intensifying Ideophones in Three Luhya Languages." ACAL 48. Bloomington, IN.
2017 (with Jesse Harris and Marju Kaps) "Sloppy on the road to strict? Stereotypical gender and the interpretation of VP Ellipsis." at CUNY 30, Boston, MA.
2017 (with Margit Bowler, Michael Diercks, and Maurice Sifuna) “Modality in Luyia: A typological study” (poster) Linguistic Society of America. Austin, Texas. (handout and poster)
2016 (with Margit Bowler) "Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli", SALT 26, Austin Texas
2016 "Intervention in Tough-Movement: A semantic analysis". GLOW 39: Workshop on Perspectivization, Göttingen, Germany
2016 (with Margit Bowler) "Expletive Agreement, Evidentiality, and Modality in Logooli", ACAL 46, Berkeley, CA
2016 "Taking Time in Logooli", ACAL 46, Berkeley, CA
2016 "Taking Time with Tough-Movement", LSA, Washington D.C.
2015 (with Margit Bowler), "Existential Quantification in Logoori: distribution and semantics of ku", Kyoto, Japan, August 21-24
2015 "Decomposing Morphological Number in Local Contexts", WCCFL 33, Simon Fraser University, March 27
2015 (with Margit Bowler) "Transitivity Alternations in Logoori", ACAL 46, University of Oregon, March 26
2015 "Some Causative Alternations in K'iche'" Berkeley Linguistics Society 41, Berkeley, CA, February 8
2015 "Non-Causative Causatives in K'iche'", WSCLA 20, University of Arizona, January 23
2015 "Taking Time with TAKE and TIME", UCLA's Syn/Sem, January 16
2014 Getting Rid of Number Features (poster), MorphologyFest, Indiana University, June 16-20
2014, External Applicatives and Raising-to-Object/ECM 38th Penn Linguistics Colloquium, March 28-30, 2014
2011, (with Gene Buckley) Syntax and Prosody in Kashaya Phrasal Accent 35th Penn Linguistics Colloquium, March 18-20, 2011